The present invention relates to a modular terrain board used for training or educational purposes.
Simulated landscapes have been used for visual aids for training and educational purposes for many years. Until fairly recently, most simulated landscapes have been "permanent", i.e., incapable of being readily altered to simulate a new landscape or to make minor changes in the simulated landscape.
Although reconfigurable simulated landscapes have been made in the past they tended to have serious drawbacks. U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,211 (Dotsko) discloses a modular terrain board. The board features a multiplicity of panels joined together to form a simulated terrain or landscape. The panels are made of fiberglass or plaster and are held together by an adhesive. Panels are removed by pulling a packing string embedded in the adhesive thereby breaking the adhesive and allowing the panels to be replaced. U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,892 (Atencio) discloses an engineering table which can be used to simulate landscapes for surveying or other educational purposes. The table uses a wetted particulate substance, e.g. wet sand or oiled sawdust, to form the terrain. Buildings and other terrain features are simply placed on the simulated terrain at the appropriate location.
The problem with the Dotsko terrain board is that it uses an adhesive to join the panels. This adhesive takes a certain amount of time to dry thus making it difficult to change from one terrain scenario to another rapidly. Also, if several panels are to be removed, application of the adhesive itself is tedious and time consuming. Finally, if one wishes to change the orientation of structures the entire panel, or group of panels, must be replaced. An exact means for determining orientation of large structures or models is not provided. The Atencio apparatus is deficient because of the difficulty in simulating straight roads and other urban landscape features. Indeed, Atencio makes no mention of how to form roads or streets. Also once the terrain model is disassembled, reassembly of a given terrain scenario would be very difficult because although there is a grid underlying the structures to assist in placement, the grid is covered by the particulate medium once the terrain scenario is completed. Although there are scale means provided along the edges of the table, structures situated toward the middle of the the table will be difficult to place.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a reconfigurable simulated landscape for training and education purposes.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a simulated landscape which is quickly and easily reconfigured.
These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by a terrain model board which has a plurality of sections or terrain cell plugs which are held in place by a baseboard assembly having a corresponding plurality of cell receiving sections or cells formed therein. The terrain cell plugs can be easily removed to allow for quick and accurate reconfiguration of the terrain model. The terrain board has means for representing buildings, rivers, lakes, roads, and other topographical features. Large buildings can be built in sections allowing for visual study of the building interior.
A variety of different environments can be simululated including urban, arctic, jungle, forest, and desert.